Panel recommends pay cut for Michigan governor, politicians

LANSING (AP)  A state panel on Monday recommended a 10 percent pay cut for lawmakers, the governor and other state elected officials.
The cuts will take effect in 2011 if both houses of the Legislature vote in favor of them.
The recommendation was approved 5-1 by the State Officers Compensation Commission.
If approved, the cuts will affect the salaries and expenses of the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and legislators.
The panel decided against a pay cut for Supreme Court justices after legal concerns were raised about whether it could take effect unless all other judges and state employees had their salaries cut by an identical amount.
David Balas, a retired state attorney from Saugatuck who sits on the panel, said he voted in favor of the pay cut to send the "right message."
"We feel this is not out of line, and state officials are sharing in the sacrifice everyone else is making," Balas said.
Former state Rep. Jack Minore, now the legislative director for the Michigan State AFL-CIO, voted against a 10 percent cut and instead favored a 5 percent cut in 2011 if it were partially restored later.
He said a 10 percent cut is "unnecessarily tough," arguing it would lead to situations where attorneys at the attorney general's office would earn more than the attorney general himself.
"By comparison to the private sector, these administrators and legislative folks are not overpaid," Minore said.
Both Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the state House recently asked the commission to recommend a 10 percent pay cut for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and lawmakers. Granholm on Monday removed her request that Supreme Court justices see a pay cut because it is not clear under the state constitution if judges' pay can be reduced, legal counsel Steven Liedel said.
The state Senate in 2007 passed a resolution asking the SOCC to recommend a 5 percent pay cut.
It was not immediately clear how soon the Legislature could take up the SOCC recommendation.
Before this year, the pay panel last met in 2004, when it granted Granholm's request that her $177,000 salary be cut 5 percent. The Legislature never OKed the reduction, though, because it took a while to pass laws conforming with a 2002 voter-approved constitutional amendment that changed the process for pay changes. Granholm has been voluntarily giving back 5 percent of her pay to the state treasury.
Voters approved the ballot measure in response to unpopular pay increases, especially a $22,250  or 38 percent  increase for lawmakers that raised their annual salary to $79,650, which today is second highest in the country.